Times Like These
by Leijona
Summary: Sequel to Remedy - How Peyton and Nathan deal in the months after the deaths of Brooke and Haley. NP friendship. Oneshot. Peyton's POV. Complete.


_**Disclaimer**: of course I don't own One Tree Hill or anything related to the show. I'd wish. Nor do I own "Times Like These" The Foo Fighters do...  
__**  
AN**: Finally, after encouraging words from some cool peops (cabot007, Tamarindo and Ashtondene - who all left a review for **Remedy**, telling me this would be a great story to continue with) I found inspiration to write a sequel. I really, really hope you like it. It didn't take me long to write this, one evening only. I guess writing from Peyton's POV is easy for me somehow. Anyway, enough with the talk - I hope you'll like this! Let me know what you think._

_**Summary** - sequel to Remedy; how will Peyton and Nathan deal in the months after the deaths of Brooke and Haley_

* * *

I feel nervous when I hear the captain say that we're almost at New Brunswick Airport. I lean my head against the small window and look at the houses that are just little dots on the ground below. We're entering a cloud and all of a sudden I'm inside a magical white world and nothing seems to matter anymore. I know it'll be ok, I know he'll be at the airport waiting for me and we'll be good together. In a non-romantic way I mean.

I take a deep breath and realize I have a whole new life ahead of me. I smile and feel a tear sliding down my cheek.

The 'fasten-your-seatbelt-sign' is being turned on and I buckle up. My hands are sweaty, so I try drying them by rubbing them on my jeans. The man next to me looks and smiles at me. I give him a little nod, but continue to look straight ahead, wishing I could skip the next hour or so.

After a few minutes we touch ground and I feel relieved. I wish the man next to me would hurry up, but it seems he's not in a rush, so I pretend I'm not either. I get my bag out of the overhead bin and say goodbye to the flight attendants on my way out. I notice I've got my head held high as I walk over to baggage claim. It's terrible, having to wait for my bags to come out before I can go through customs. I know they're waiting for me on the other side of the wall and it's frustrating I can't already see them, just to assure myself they're really there.

I sit down on one of the hard and cold chairs and think about the last couple of months.

--

We met again in one of the most difficult times in our lives. We both lost someone very special and found comfort in one another. Before the accident we hadn't spoken in almost two years. When we left high school I went to New York for an interim ship, while he went to Duke, to play basketball. Somehow our worlds drifted apart. I stayed in New York after my interim ship, while he stayed in Tree Hill, spending his weekdays at university, but the weekends at home with his wife and son. I was the only one who had left Tree Hill and must admit I wasn't that good at staying in touch. I comfort myself by saying it takes two, but know I shouldn't make up excuses.

Of course Brooke and I spoke on a regular basis; every Sunday afternoon, to catch up. I miss those Sundays. I miss waiting by the phone for her call, knowing that even though we'd agreed to call at 4 p.m., she was always late, and wouldn't call until 4.30. That was fine with me most of the time, but if I had something important to tell her, I would call her at 4 p.m. sharp. She didn't mind though and always dropped everything to talk to me. I can remember one Sunday when I heard her talking to a guy, saying it was best if he left as she had to talk to her best friend right now. I was so flattered by that. It always would be hoes over bros.

The first few weeks after the accident were the most difficult for me. Especially the Sundays. There were a couple of times when I already had dialled her number, before I realised she wouldn't answer. My Brooke would be gone forever and I just had to deal with it.

I really feel as if she's still watching over me though, together with Haley.

Haley. I know we had our differences in the past and I really hadn't spoken to her after she came back to Tree Hill in Senior year, but I now realize she was an amazing person. She was an amazing mother to Jamie and a great wife to Nathan. Sometimes I blame myself for being stubborn. I should have forgiven her when she asked for it. But I didn't. I was so mad at her for what she had done to Nathan, I couldn't even consider being her friend again. I think that's part of the reason we didn't stay in touch as much as we could have. Haley was Lucas's best friend, Nathan's wife and Brooke's friend. I was Brooke's best friend, Lucas friend and Nathan's ex-girlfriend. I don't blame them for choosing Haley over me.

I haven't really talked to Lucas after the funeral either. Neither of us have. He's been shutting us out, not answering his phone, not opening the door when we try to take him out. We've tried, really we did, but after a while there's only so much you can do. Karen told me he has left Tree Hill about two months ago and the fact that he didn't tell us he was planning on leaving, made both Nathan and I decide that enough is enough. He's not the only one going through hell right now. But for some reason he thinks he is. I feel sorry for him and have emailed him, saying I wish him all the best. I also told him he could always call if he needed anything, but I haven't heard from him since.

--

I look at the monitor above the baggage belt and see red words flashing. Great, my baggage is delayed. I sigh in frustration and walk over to the vending machine, trying to get myself a bottle of water. Of course the bottle gets stuck. I carefully look around and giggle before I softly kick the machine when I think no one's watching me. I grab the water and head back to my seat. The monitor now says there's a delay of at least 15 minutes, so I lean back and close my eyes. I feel a smile forming around my lips as I think about the times I spent at the Scott house these months.

--

After Brooke and Haley's funeral I went to see Nathan at the beach. I gave him a book I made about Haley, so Jamie could see what his Mom did, what she liked, what kind of person she was, how she lived her life. From what I understand, Nathan has been reading this book to Jamie every night for the last couple of months. I guess that's a good thing.

That little boy stole my heart. From the moment I saw him in the café, after the funeral, I was hooked. Even though he's only three years old, he seems to understand the world a lot better than most of us do. I'd like to think I've bonded with Jamie. The first thing he does in the morning, when he's awake, is open my door and hop on my bed, screaming "Wake up, P. Sawyer." I think he's got that from his Godmother, Brooke. I love it though and couldn't ask for a better way to wake up. Jamie is my little ray of sunshine.

I've stayed with Nathan and Jamie ever since the funeral. I know I was supposed to stay at my Dad's house, but I just couldn't do it. That first night, knowing Brooke would never come back, was awful. I spent hours lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for her to come wake me up, telling me everything has been a bad dream. At 4 a.m. I couldn't take it anymore. I put on some clothes and drove over to Nathan's. I wasn't surprised to see the light on, so I let myself in and found Nathan in the kitchen. Head in his hands, crying. I carefully put my arm around him and he grabbed on so tight I couldn't find it in my heart to leave him ever again.

I've got my own room now. Two actually. One bedroom and one 'artistic' room, as Nathan likes to call it. I keep all my drawings there and the walls will soon be filled with all my albums. That's what I've been doing in New York the last week. I've packed up all my things and they are now ready to be transported to Tree Hill. I can't wait until I can get completely settled again. Nathan has told me I can stay forever if I want to, and I really think that's what I'm going to do. I love it there. I feel more and more alive everyday and have found some sort of peace I never knew I had.

Not that there's anything going on between us. We're just friends. We've talked a lot about this, and we figured that the best thing we could do right now is try to offer Jamie a family and a home, without ignoring Haley or what happened to her. We hope Jamie will benefit from this some day.

Nathan and I are really on the same path again. It's good to have him around. He knows what I'm going through and respects it when I need space. I also can tell, just by looking at him, what he's thinking. He doesn't have to tell me what is going on, because I'm going through the exact same thing. We don't need words to tell how we feel, just one look at each other is enough. We both feel a huge responsibility towards Jamie, to try to be brave. Some days are better than others, but I think Jamie knows that. He knows when it's ok to mess around, because that's when he'll bug us about taking him out for ice cream. But he also knows when we're having a hard day. He'll come over to us and give us a hug, without saying a word. I always tear up a little when he does that. One time he told me, that aunt Brooke had told him to give me a hug, because I was feeling sad. I'd like to believe that she did.

Nathan has gone back to work again. He's taken over the dealership from Dan a year ago, when things with basketball didn't work out. Dan's still in jail for killing Keith, so of course, Nathan's changed the name. Now, everyone gets their car at 23 Motors. My new job will start in a couple of weeks, when summer is over. I've got accepted as an art-teacher at Tree Hill High, something I've been thinking about before all of this happened. I'm really excited and hope I'll do well.

--

I feel someone touching my arm, one of the airport staff smiles and points at the baggage belt "I think those are yours, Madam."

I look and see my two orange bags are the only ones still going round in circles. I quickly walk over to get them. With one bag in each hand I walk through the sliding doors and scan the room for two familiar faces. For a moment I'm worried they've already left, but soon I hear little feet run towards me and an excited voice reaches my ears "P. Sawyer! You're home!"

I drop my bags, lift up Jamie and smile "Yes, I am, little friend."

I see Nathan walking over with a faint smile. I put Jamie down and give Nathan a hug.

"It's good to have you back again, Sawyer. The house was silent without your crappy music."

I roll my eyes at Jamie, knowing he appreciates my music, and playfully give Nathan a little punch "Well, thank you, Scott. I've missed you too."

Nathan grabs my bags as I take Jamie's hand. Together we head for the car. I put Jamie in his car seat and give him a big kiss. I've missed that little boy.

We're only five minutes into our drive when I hear Jamie from the back seat "Can we go for ice cream, Daddy?' and I can't help but smile.

_It's times like these you learn to live again  
It's times like these you give and give again  
It's times like these you learn to love again  
It's times like these, time and time again_

**- FIN -**


End file.
